I have an uncontrollable urge to tell everyone about this video (http://www.pjtv.com/v/2235), partly because I wish I had written it. Whatever you think of Sarah Palin, we are in a war for the truth. Do we as a culture put up with irrational, emotional personal attacks in the place of ordered debate? Does even that question seem to have no traction in your soul? Has it lost its appeal? Does something in your heart sink when it is asked, knowing that it will go nowhere and accomplish nothing?

How can this be? Are we so deaf to the call of the truth that we have resigned ourselves to a culture that runs on power instead of logic? Could it be that we are so overwhelmed that we think the only approach is cynicism toward all things reasonable?

This is just the place that the devil wants us to occupy -- no ability to think clearly or willingness to throw the weight of our lives and energies behind a the good where we find it. What if we were such moral cowards that we would rather be in with the hip crowd than take a stand for the true and the good when we find them?

I have been reading Saul Alinsky's book "Rules for Radicals," and he is an amoral, pragmatic, shell of a human being who will do or say anything (and teach others to do the same) in order to achieve power for the people he represents. This is ALWAYS the problem: the people you would LIKE to have lead you are people of character, but the only people who can rise to power are those who are willing to compromise character to achieve power. What hope do those who are NOT willing to do anything have? When it comes to "the Chicago way," Sean Connery's character in The Untouchables says, "if they pull a knife, you pull a gun; if they put one of yours in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue...how far are you willing to go?" That's the question, and in the movie it seems like a call to courage in the face of opposition -- but can we fight the devil on his own terms and not lose our souls?

The plan put forth by the Cloward-Piven bunch is being put into practice all around us. (If you don't know about the Cloward-Piven strategy, read about it here: http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6967) The idea is to bring the present government down by overloading the system wherever it is weakest. The applications of this approach are everywhere:

Health care: because 20-40 million Americans don't have health insurance (and somehow folks are convinced everyone has a right to insurance), let's revamp the system for all 300 million of us and pay for it all through the government. This destroys the medical care for everyone, and incidentally crashes the economy. We were vulnerable because the country generally accepts the idea that the government should provide health care.

Housing: because a small percentage of the population don't own their own houses (because their finances are such that they are bad loan risks), direct the nation's banks to lower their standards and raise the loan risk level and loan requirements so that we can get everyone his own house. This overextends banks (on the promise that the Fed government will back defaults), loans fail, foreclosures ramp up, banks are bought out by the very government that said they'd back them, house prices fall, owners find they have negative equity, savings are lost, and the economy crashes. We were vulnerable because the country bought the idea that everyone should be given what they haven't earned (for whatever reason).

Voter registration: because it seems there are a lot of people who have not (for whatever reason) registered to vote, community organizers launch grass-roots projects to get everyone registered. Sounds good, but the real reason is not to get general registrations (as they tell the Republicans knowing it will stop their opposition), or to target groups that will vote Democrat (as they tell the Democrats, knowing it will stop their opposition), but that it will bring the election system to a collapse. The organizers know the voter registration offices are woefully understaffed, thus vulnerable to an overwhelming flood of paperwork that will lead to choke-points all through the system, bringing it all to a standstill. The registrations sent in by ACORN "volunteers" by the thousands were often frauds, but it takes time to track them each down to confirm. Not only does this slow the entire process of voting, it gives the enemies of the system credibility when they claim voter fraud -- "just look at all those illegitimate ballots!" they cry, knowing that they sent them in themselves. We are vulnerable precisely because of our conscientiousness.

In fact, we are vulnerable to these sorts of attacks because we want to be "good people" at every turn. Our very consciences are being used against us. What are people like Sarah Palin to do when they are attacked for being horrible, nasty, self-centered people who don't care about those without health care, housing, or the vote? Honest people want to address the accusations and redress any wrong they think they have caused -- and this is their mistake: they think the accusations must be somewhat true or they wouldn't be so raised. But dishonest people USE this honesty against them.

Why DON'T we expect Bill Clinton, Charles Rangel, Dan Rather, or Barney Frank to be ashamed of themselves for their actions? Why DOESN'T ACORN act ashamed when they are caught in blatant illegality/immorality? Imagine the storm of moral indignation if it were found that Sarah Palin had had sex with an intern? Or that George Bush had been running a homosexual escort service out of his home? What if it were found that Rush Limbaugh had knowingly faked and lied on his show in order to undermine a candidate he wanted to see fail? This fellow (on the video) says "of course we don't expect morality from them, they are Democrats." Have we as a COUNTRY really sunk so low? Is there no category from which to evaluate both parties on their honesty? This is how the empire can fall -- from the inside. Our own desire for open honesty and sympathy for the underdog is being used to neutralize our best and brightest.

Have a look at this and tell me what you think.

http://www.pjtv.com/v/2235